The UW-Madison ""Motion W"" can be recognized on memorabilia around the state and even the country as a logo exclusive to UW-Madison. Could a gold and purple ""W"" representing a school nestled in the city of Waukee, Iowa infringe on its integrity?
The ""W"" used by Waukee High School is comparable to the UW-Madison logo with a similar tilt, shadow and pointed arrow between the prongs of the ""W.""
The one noticeable difference between the structure of the UW and Waukee logo is a change on the top of the middle prong in the ""W.""
""We looked at the UW-Wisconsin ‘W' and actually looked at the UW-Washington ‘W' at the same time and tried to kind of morph the two into something that was not the same but unique to us,"" Waukee School District Superintendent Dave Wilkerson said.
The use of the Waukee symbol has been brought to the attention of the Collegiate Licensing Co., which mailed a cease and desist letter to Waukee High School several weeks ago. The company represents more than 180 colleges and regulates cases of piracy for trademarked logos.
""Generally, trademark laws seek to protect consumers from being confused,"" said John Kidwell, a UW-Madison law professor who specializes in trademark law. ""It's really not about the sports teams at all. It's about the university's ownership of a logo that's used to designate products that are sponsored or affiliated with the university in some way.""
""It might not be so much affecting the reputation of the university,"" said Cindy Van Matre, director of licensing for UW-Madison. ""But there are a lot of high schools out there that could have done this.""
""I don't think it took away from the university at all because the colors are different, and it's not like we're using Bucky,"" Wilkerson said.
More than 10 years ago the Waukee School District phased out its American Indian-themed logo, replacing it with the ""W"" in question.
This is not the first case of schools being approached for the apparent piracy of the UW logo. According to Van Matre, there have been more than 20 incidents in the last three years.
""Of all the schools that we've contacted, this is the first one that has created this big media storm like this,"" Van Matre said. ""We're working with them to make it as painless as possible.""
Waukee School District has five years to phase out the logo, Van Matre said.
